About 25,000 teachers hold one-day strike in Hungary

About 25,000 teachers from nearly 1,200 schools walked off the job for a day on Wednesday to protest an overcentralized education system, with too heavy a workload on students.

Teachers are protesting inflexible curricula, lack of choice in textbooks, the huge amount of administrative work required of them at the expense of teaching, delays in funding for school supplies, and the low pay for non-teacher personnel who work in the schools among other grievances.

The strike was called by three teachers' unions, and several civil organizations, other trade unions, and specialized bodies including courts of law indicated their solidarity with five-minute work stoppages, special dress, and street demonstrations.

Teachers' Union president Piroska Gallo called the strike a success, while the state secretariat for education pointed out that the majority of the roughly 150,000 teachers had not participated in the strike.

The government has been calling for dialogue with the teachers, but with the government setting the agenda the teachers' unions have so far refused to participate.

The teachers have submitted a 25-point list of demands including a call for the complete reorganization of the body responsible for school maintenance and increased school funding, as well as the issues already mentioned.

The government has agreed to some of the points including an increase in funding but there continues to be a gap between teacher demands and government concessions.

Gallo said teachers would see whether the strike had borne fruit by the outcome of negotiations with the government expected to be held next week.

She also suggested that the unions now wanted to concentrate on the bargaining table, rather than work stoppages. Endit